Although online learning has been a good resource throughout the pandemic, it has not been an easy one.

Especially now that students are back in the classroom, setting up a zoom device for one or two students at home is both a hassle and extremely stressful.

Next year, when life is expected to somewhat go back to normal, we should not linger in COVID times.

It is far too easy for students to abuse the privileges of Zoom.

Whether it’s purely out of laziness or a different, more appealing use of time, there is no fairness in allowing healthy students to “dial in” while everyone else took the time to be in the classroom.

Moreover, it’s considerate to the teachers to be present whenever possible, because managing online and in person students is extremely difficult.

Nobody signed up for COVID, but next year COVID likely won’t be an issue, and teachers certainly didn’t sign up to teach over zoom on a regular basis.

While rare, there are a handful of situations where a student might not be able to attend school for a long period of time, such as for medical reasons or being quarantined. In those cases, digital learning could be used as a last resort. It would be a valuable asset for keeping the student up-to-date in class.

If a student is feeling sick or is unable to attend class for a day, they should follow up with their teacher the next class or if they know they will be gone, the class before. This has been the system for many years and it worked well. Adding Zoom into the mix makes teachers jobs harder and slows down classes.

Otherwise, students must be responsible and go to school. High school is, after all, intended to prepare young people for the real world, not their beds.